KDakotaFund (24.21)

Mobs in Europe, Records in Brazil

20

"WHAT MAKES these frightening scenes so unnerving is that they're not occurring in third-world dictatorships, but in advanced economies within many of Europe's largest cities. We're used to seeing violent street clashes in Lebanon. But Belgium?

Makes you wonder if, ten years from now, Americans will be clamoring to buy stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) or throwing Molotov cocktails at the coffee shop across the street.

The lesson is that no country has a monopoly on economic dominance. A culture’s success isn’t determined by its natural resources or stimulus program, but by the extent government protects each individual’s rights – and stays out of the way.

but I totally disgree with it. The reality is that no culture in the history of mankind has been successful if you define success as "protecting each individual's rights and staying out of the way." Tell me a society that meets that description and I'll tell you another culture that dominates it. Latin America has had several attempts at strong democracies, but as soon as they show success in being independent, guess who has swooped in to assassinate their leaders and usurp their resources? The US.

And the USA isn't even close to fitting that description of protecting individual rights. In fact, it's the opposite. We are a very top-down oligarchy that protects the upper class. The upper class controls the media, controls the banks (which steal our money through inflation), controls legislation through buying and electing politicians. In fact, elections are nothing more than a show every four years or so to make us feel like we are activelt participating. In reality, with very few exceptions, those running for federal office have already been vetted and chosen behind the scenes.

I've lived in the Bay Area California my whole life. In my 30 years I can remember many, many rioting/protest events in my lifetime. To name a few: Rodney King riots/looting (north and south CA), looting spawned from the earthquake in 89, multiple riots during and after the OJ trial, and most recently, rioting broke out when that BART cop only got two years for shooting the kid at the BART station. My hat goes off to the local law enforcement, they've really gotten crowd (angry mob) control down to a science. Most of the rioting occurs in Richmond and Oakland, but I've seen them in San Francisco too. Those are only a few events and none of them take into account the protests/riots we had in the Bay Area during the 60s and 70s. This country was founded on protests! Nothing new here. Just tough times...